


The Story Teller

by KoalaKat



Category: Torchwood
Genre: AU, I don't like her and don't feel like writing about her, M/M, Magical Ianto Jones, There is no Gwen, but neither do I, so strap in because we are in for one wild ride, so we're just gonna pretend that she never existed, this was supposed to be a crack fic how'd it get so angsty?!!?, you may not know where this story is going
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-26
Updated: 2019-03-17
Packaged: 2019-05-13 21:26:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14756600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoalaKat/pseuds/KoalaKat
Summary: Ianto has had this power ever since he was a kid, but he never knew how much trouble it would get him in back then





	1. Welp. That Escalated Quickly.

He never knew why he had this power. It had just always been with him, ever since the day he’d been born. He’d first realized he had it when he was five or six, reading up in his room as his sister did her homework. He wasn’t doing anything special, he’d just noticed a bit of dust on his book and wanted to blow it off, like people always did in the movies.

How was he to know the picture would come to life when he did that?

As Curious George popped to life before him Ianto could only stare, too shocked and confused to move. However the feeling didn’t last too long and soon he was laughing and playing along with his tiny George. When his mother told him to quiet down he was sad to see George go back in the book.

As he grew older he kept playing with his story book friends. He would tell his mom all about the adventures he had with these characters; she would just smile and laugh about the imagination of children. 

As he got older Curious George and the Cat in the Hat turned into Harry Potter and Bilbo Baggins and the adventures changed. Now instead of exploring the magic of learning he was exploring dark caves and finding buried treasure.

He was more cautious with his written playmates as he got older. He’d read lots of books. Enough books to know that you don’t just go around telling people about your magical powers unless you want to be sanctioned or a science experiment.

It wasn’t just paper Ianto could bring to life either. Anything that was an image could be brought to life with his breath. Once he was finally able to stay home alone and use the computer without anyone else around he tried it out, brought He-Man and the Thundercats alive to have an adventure in his living room. Unlike his paper creations, which stayed paper after he brought them to life, these electronic creations became whatever they were in their original world.

Ianto pulled away from the real world more and more as time went on. The kids at school were unforgiving and brutal to the awkward kid who liked books more than people. Soon he found that all of his free time was spent going on adventures with his “imaginary” friends. His parents tried to get him to connect with others but every attempt of theirs failed. Eventually they started to get mad at him, saying he was wasting away his life doing nothing.

Eventually Ianto moved to London to try and escape the troubles from home. He joined Torchwood hoping to learn more about what might have given him his powers, although he quickly learned to keep quiet about them. With Torchwood’s “if it’s alien it’s ours” policy, Ianto didn’t dare use his powers, despite him being quite sure in his terrestrial origins. He didn’t even use his powers at home because he was so paranoid about being caught. 

He did do some research while at Torchwood, just under the radar. By then he knew of the unusual nature of his powers and he wanted some answers. But not using his powers took its toll. He didn’t know much about his powers but he was soon learning that he couldn’t go too long without using them. He didn’t know how much longer he could hold out.

Then he met Lisa. 

He felt happy for the first time in months, like his life had meaning once more. They dated for three weeks, the best three weeks of Ianto’s life. He decided that he could trust Lisa despite the fact that she was Torchwood. He was too after all. Besides with her firm belief in the supernatural she would understand. He hoped at least.

So he planned a big date: fancy restaurant, flowers, the works. He decided that at the end of the night that he’d tell her. He had planned it out down to the word.

“So, Lisa,” she looked up from the movie they were watching (Star Wars because they were both nerds), “I, I planned this date with more than just a great evening in mind.”

“Oh really?” she smirked.

He got up and grabbed the book he had picked out. It had taken a lot of thought but eventually he had decided on Harry Potter, he was familiar with Ianto, he could relate a lot to his story while growing up. He was also a favorite of Lisa’s, “Yeah, I have something to show you.”

“All of this for Harry Potter?”

“Oh this is so much more than just plain old Harry Potter.” He smirked before leaning down and softly blowing on the picture. Like every other time he had done this, blue and purple mist flowed out of his mouth and enveloped the picture, covering it before dissipating and leaving a mini Harry in its wake. He was only the size of Ianto’s thumb and was black and white, because while Ianto could bring pictures to life they stay the same material and color as they were before life.

Ianto was snapped out of his thoughts by Lisa’s shocked shout. “Ianto!”

He smiled shyly at her. “Surprise.”

“You-you- How long have you been able to-” She never took her eyes off of tiny Harry.

“Bring pictures to life?” She nodded, still staring at Harry who was flying around, recognizing this as something Ianto needed to do alone, “for as long as I can remember, maybe even since I was born.”

“Oh I am so sorry Ianto.”

“It’s really not that bad.” He had turned around to watch Harry who had a shocked look on his face and was waving his arms around frantically, he shrugged. “Pretty cool actually.”

“Not for that Ianto.” She grabbed his arm and tugged it violently behind his back, handcuffing his wrists. Ianto grunted as he struggled to get out of the cuffs.

He turned around and stared at Lisa, both shocked and hurt, “Why? Why would you do this?”

“Because Ianto, you’re an alien and that makes you Torchwood’s” She spat.

“I trusted you!” He snarled, still struggling against her, “You were the first person I trusted and you betrayed me!” He should’ve known that the only person he’d ever loved and trusted enough to share this with would have believed Torchwood’s propaganda wholeheartedly.

Harry flew over and tried to stop Lisa, firing spell after ineffective spell at her. Her arm shot out and squashed him in her unforgiving grip. She turned back to Ianto and whispered in his ear, “You should’ve known better to think anybody would want to be with a freak like you.”

Ianto kept struggling as Lisa carried him out the front door, as they passed his portrait of a dragon by his front door he took a deep breath and brought it to life. She shoved him to the side as she drew her gun and shot the dragon between the eyes. She then slammed the butt of her gun into Ianto’s head, disorienting him enough that he stopped struggling.

Lisa then led him out the door and into her car. Ianto wondered if that would be the last time he would ever see the sky.

After that Ianto’s life changed again. He was a prisoner of Torchwood and, like all of their other prisoners, was subjected to a multitude of tests. Ianto hadn’t really been aware of Torchwood’s prisons. Yes he knew that they took in criminal aliens, since they had nowhere else to put them, but he hadn’t been aware of the horrible conditions. He also hadn’t been aware that a good number of their prisoners were innocent.

Now that Ianto was one of them he became acutely aware of their struggles. As it turns out Torchwood wasn’t just housing these aliens, they were experimenting on them as well.

His first day as a prisoner there he was brought into an operating room, he struggled against his two bodyguards despite knowing that doing so was pointless. Eventually they strapped him down to the table as a doctor walked up decked out in scrubs. “Hello, I hear you’re the new prisoner here.”

Ianto didn’t answer, instead just glared at the man.

“Oh that’s fine you don’t need to speak. I’ve been told I’m quite the talker so I’m sure I can fill your silence somehow.” He turned around and grabbed a scalpel off the tray. “We’re going to perform a simple surgery. I’m going to implant this machine-” he nodded towards the table, “-into your arm. This will cause you immense pain every day unless it is plugged into a Torchwood server every 24 hours.” 

He placed the scalpel on Ianto’s arm, not yet cutting in. “Now, you may be wondering why I’m telling you this now instead of waiting until after your surgery.” He dug the scalpel into Ianto’s arm. “But I just don’t think you’ll be in a state to listen afterwards. Pain tends to distract the mind.” 

Ianto screamed until he blacked out from the pain.

His life didn’t improve much afterwards. He would constantly be told to bring things to life, up to twenty drawings a day. Ianto learned another thing about his powers during his imprisonment, bringing drawings to life really. He’d never had any reason to bring so many pictures to life before so he’d never realized.

Ianto was also being given a cocktail of drugs everyday courtesy of Torchwood that affected his stamina. The drugs kept him sluggish and his mind foggy at best.

But he did have some hope. Just a little, waiting for when he could finally escape this Hell.


	2. After the Battle

Jack looked at the rubble surrounding him with disgust. Torchwood One was always too headstrong in his opinion, what with their “if it’s alien it’s ours” policy. He sighed and continued making his way into the basement. He had his team making sure that UNIT was distracted as he searched London’s sub basements, where he knew they kept all of their most dangerous experiments.

As he made his way down he found their cell block. He was disgusted to find dead alien after dead alien as he walked through it. He looked for signs of life on each alien, Jack knew that this was most likely pointless but he felt that he owed it to them to at least check.

He walked into the last cell which housed what looked to be an average human male, although Jack knew that looks could be deceiving. He pushed his fingers to the pulse point, not really expecting to find anything. Which would be why he jumped when he felt that familiar thump under his fingers.

“Hey, hey.” Jack tapped at the man’s cheek, trying to wake him up. “The Cybermen are gone. It’s safe now, you can wake up.”

Jack smiled for the first time since this whole mess with Canary Wharf when the man groaned and started to blink his eyes open. When Jack saw his eyes, so clouded he could barely even tell the color of them, Jack knew why he’d taken so long to respond. Torchwood One had drugged this man to oblivion and Jack was willing to bet this wasn’t an unusual occurrence. 

He tapped his comm. “Owen, I need you on sub basement three now.”

“Can’t it wait Jack?” He groaned through the speaker. “I’m trying to keep UNIT from taking any world ending weapons here.”

“I’ve got a patient for you. I’m sure Suzie can handle those idiots.”

“You found a survivor?”

“Yeah. He’s in bad shape.” Jack sighed. “I need to make sure UNIT doesn’t learn about him, that clear?”

“Like crystal. I’ll be right down.”

With that covered Jack turned his attention back to the man laying before him. He was still awake, although obviously struggling to stay that way. Jack knelt down next to him, not sure if it was safe for him to fall asleep. “Hey, keep those gorgeous eyes open. Can you talk?”

He seemed confused, furrowing his brow as if deep in thought. After a couple moments of silence he whispered, “yes.”

“Okay that’s good.” Jack smiled. “Can you tell me your name?”

“Ian- Ianto.” He struggled to get out. Ianto was speaking so quietly that Jack had to struggle to hear him, even in the close quarters of the cell. “Jones.”

“Well Ianto Jones, my team and I are going to get you out.” Jack kept blabbering on, just trying to keep Ianto awake until Owen got there. Jack sighed, Ianto couldn’t be much older than twenty two, far too young to be suffering this much.

Jack jumped as Owen called out behind him. “So what’ve we got here Jack?”

“I don’t know. He was drugged and is really out of it right now.” Jack watched as Owen got to work immediately. He may have been a huge prick but Owen was a great doctor. “I need to know if it’s safe to transport him to the Hub. I don’t want UNIT to find out about him.”

Owen drew some blood and turned back to Jack. “He should be fine getting to the Hub. Once you get there have Tosh run this through the analyzer.” He handed Jack the vial of blood.

“Got it. You sure you and Suzie will be fine holding UNIT off yourselves?” Jack wanted to help this man but his team will always be his first concern.

Owen just waved him off. “Just get this man safe Jack. God only knows what One’s been doing to him, or what UNIT would do if they got their grubby mitts on him.”

Jack bent down and picked the now unconscious man up over his shoulder in a fireman carry. “Okay, feel free to call if you need help.” With that Jack hurried out of the building doing his best not to be noticed before loading the unconscious man into the SUV.

Jack drove over the speed limit as he raced to get Ianto to the safety of the Hub. He tapped his comm. “Tosh, I’m bringing in a survivor.”

“A survivor?” Her voice crackled as the comms connected. “Why here?”

“Because he wasn't a worker at One.” Jack explained as he sped out of London. “He was an experiment.”

“Are we sure it's safe Jack?”

Jack sighed as he looked back at the unconscious man in his back seat. He'd been thinking the same thing. “I'm willing to take that risk. Besides it's better than leaving him with UNIT for them to continue his torture.”

“Okay, I trust you. Do you need me to get anything ready for his arrival?”

“Just get the medbay ready.”

“On it.” With that Tosh’s comm shut off. Jack arrived at the Hub an hour and a half later, even though it was a two hour drive. 

He walked in through the closed tourist office and into their subterranean base with their new guest over his shoulder. “Tosh! Is the medbay ready?”

She ran over from her station to help him set the man down in the medbay, also known as the autopsy bay. “So do we know why One was experimenting on him?”

“Not yet. Hopefully when he wakes up we can ask him, until then let’s just make him comfortable.” They settle the young man onto the table, which now had a blanket draped over it. They stood in silence for a minute before Tosh gave one last look at Ianto and headed back to her station.

Jack sighed as he watched the man sleep. “What mysteries do you hold Ianto?” he whispered.


	3. Ianto Needs A Hug

For the first time in months the first thing to register as he woke up wasn’t pain. He kept very still as he tried to remember what had happened, it was hard because the drugs they gave him made his memories all mashed up and fuzzy. Slowly he recalled the battle, the screams, the fire and death and destruction that he was helpless to prevent. His rescuer…

Jack. Jack Harkness. He was back at Torchwood.

Ianto quickly reigned in his breathing, he didn’t want anyone who might be in the room to know he was awake. When he was still working at Torchwood One he’d heard rumors about the infamous Jack Harkness. Reckless, mysterious, and willing to sleep with anything from what he’d heard.

He almost wished he was back at One, at least he knew what to expect there. With Harkness he had no clue what he’d do to him, all he knew was that he wouldn’t be free. He’d never be free in Torchwood.

Ianto couldn’t help but tense as heavy footsteps made their way into the room. “I know you’re awake.” The voice said.

He sighed and sat up. “What are you going to do to me?” 

The man, Jack Harkness presumably, smiled. “Well, I was hoping to learn why One was holding you captive. After that, I was going to give you the choice of working for me-”

“-or I get to be your prisoner right?” Ianto glared at him.

“-or we work out a plan for you to live your life on the outside. For the most part free of Torchwood.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah right. Torchwood never gives up something that’s there’s.”

“I’m not like Torchwood One.” Harkness insisted. At Ianto’s glare, he said, “I guess you’ll just have to learn to trust me.”

Ianto just sighed, he knew that this was a losing battle. Harkness could do anything he wanted to him. “Whatever, let’s just get this over with.”

While he didn’t give any outward signs of it, Ianto could see it in his eyes the Jack was disappointed. “Fine, what was Torchwood One holding you for?”

“Why don’t you just look at all of the files. I’m sure you took plenty while stepping over the people crying out in pain littering the halls.”

“We saved everyone we could. Only 27 people were alive by the time we arrived.” 

“Oh yeah.” Ianto scoffed. “Sounds like you really tried. Do you even know how many people you abandoned? How many people-”

“-823. Eight hundred twenty-three people died that day and there was nothing that I could do to save them.” Ianto was shocked, Harkness actually seemed to care about the people who died. He’d never heard of any Torchwood leaders caring about anything other than making the new and biggest weapons. “Now, what did Torchwood One hold you for?”

Ianto knew that there was no way out of this, might as well tell him now. “I’ll need a book.”

“A what?”

“A book.” Ianto deadpanned. “You know, paper and ink, bound with glue. I’ll need one with pictures.”

“I’ll be back then. Don’t go anywhere.” With that he walked out, coat swishing behind him.

“Where am I supposed to go?” He yelled at the locked door.

After Ianto had finished recounting the tiles on the ceiling Harkness finally returned. “Here.” A book landed on Ianto’s chest. “Show me what you’re made of.”

Ianto sighed as he slowly sat up from the bed. The book Harkness had thrown at him was a Winnie the Pooh book. Ianto had no idea where he got it but he smiled at the memories it invoked. When he’d first discovered his powers Winnie the Pooh had been a constant playmate. As Ianto opened the book he could see Harkness’s confused but intrigued expression and smiled to himself. Finally he blew onto the page, a blue and purple mist came flowing out of his mouth, covering the picture before Pooh popped off the page.

“Holy- you can bring pictures to life?” Harkness exclaimed.

“Yep.” Ianto didn’t look up as he played with Pooh.

“No wonder One wanted you, with a power like that. All you would have to do is bring an image of a gun to life and they could mass produce any weapon they wanted to.”

Ianto scoffed. No matter where you went Torchwood was the same. “That’s what they thought too. They soon learned however that what I bring to life stays the material it was printed on. Then when they tried to take them apart and re-engineer the machines they found out that only the parts showing in the picture were brought to life, the insides were empty.”

Harkness looked intrigued. “So how do they work then?”

“Magic? I don’t know One didn’t care about that, or, if they did they never got that far.” He sighed. “No one else in my family has these powers, I have no clue where they came from or how they work.”

Harkness blew out a breath. “Well that’s quite the power you’ve got, however I don’t think you’re a danger to society or anything like that. So, the question is, do you want to work for Torchwood do you want to go live your life in the real world?”

“Just like that?” Ianto stared up at the man, he was either incredibly stupid or playing some kind of trick if he was willing to just let a prisoner go like that. “You’re going to let me go?”

“Well, like I said Torchwood would still keep tabs on you. And you most likely would have to work for us for a short time before I could let you go.” He looked so honest that Ianto almost believed him. “Of course if you stayed with us we could help you solve the mystery of your powers.”

Ianto thought that this would be an easy decision, get as far away from Torchwood as he could seemed the obvious answer. The thing was that he always wanted to know more about his powers, that’s why he joined Torchwood in the first place. “If I decided to work for you, not that I’m saying I will, would I be able to quit at anytime. Or would I be stuck in Torchwood forever?”

“You could leave Torchwood at anytime you wanted to, of course you would still have Torchwood keeping tabs on you to make sure you don’t try to turn on the human race or anything.”

Ianto really hoped this didn’t blow up in his face. “I think I’m going to stay with Torchwood for now.”

Harkness’s smile was blinding. “Great, we’ll get an apartment set up for you. You will be just like any other employee in most respects.”

“Most respects?”

Harkness deflated a bit. “Unfortunately because of bureaucracy I will have to keep tabs on you and be notified if you want to leave the city. But those would be the same terms even if you didn’t want to live with Torchwood.”

“Okay, I guess I can live with that.”

“One more thing, since your family has already been told that you died as soon as you became Torchwood’s prisoner you will be unable to visit them.”

While he’d hoped otherwise Ianto was not surprised by this revelation. “Harkness?”

“Call me Jack, please.”

“Jack, could- could you maybe... not tell the others about my powers.” He stared down at his feet as he tried to look as non threatening as possible. “I just want to be treated like a normal coworker.”

“Sure, now let’s go get you settled.” Harkness- Jack, opened the door and waved him through. “I’ll just tell them that you aren’t a danger and cut off any other questions, They’re good at following orders when they need to.”

“Thanks.”

Jack gave him that smile that made him so famous at One. “Anytime. Now let me show you where you’ll be working. The archives are a bit of a mess but I think you can handle it.”

Later after seeing the state of the archives Ianto would hail Jack the King of Understatement. For now he was just happy to have a live again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're almost there! Just one more chapter to go, although fair warning the next chapter is just me having some fun and isn't serious at all


	4. Oh No Oh God O hFu ckJustSt op

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this chapter doesn't really hold up to any expectations you might have had but I kind of ran out of inspiration and fell out of the fandom. But I finished it so I hope you enjoy it, or at least enjoyed the idea

Ianto had been at Torchwood for a couple weeks when it happened. He had settled in very nicely. Tosh was very kind to him and Owen, well Owen was a bit rough around the edges but Ianto could tell that he genuinely cared by the way he would subtly check to make sure that Ianto was okay.

Everything was going great. Or it was until all the dust and musty air in the archives caught up to him. He just wished he hadn’t been reading files on some of the most annoying aliens Torchwood had ever met when it happened.

Jack had been having a pretty good day, he’d convinced the Prime Minister to give Torchwood a raise and actually caught up on his paperwork for once. “Hey Ianto,” he drawled, leaning back in his chair. “How’s my favorite archivist today?”

“Next time you tell me that you have a ‘bit’ of a problem for me, remind me to slap you, sir.”

“Oh come on, Ianto.” He smiled. “They’re not that bad.”

“I assure you they are.” Jack could imagine his deadpan expression. His smirk grew at the thought. “Did you even attempt to organize these files before my arrival?”

Jack was about to jump to his own defense when he was interrupted by Ianto sneezing. “Bless you.” After a couple minutes of radio silence, Jack got a bit worried. “Ianto?”

“Sir, emergency lockdown procedures. Intruder in the archives.” Ianto’s strained voice came through.

Jack quickly put the lockdown into place before rushing down to the archives. “What’s going on Ianto, how did an alien get into the hub?” He sprinted past Owen and Tosh who were attempting to question him about the lockdown.

“Um, I sneezed and brought a file to life.”

Jack sighed. “What file did you bring to life?” He could feel the headache that this would bring already developing.

“The file on the Bo’tara’s.” 

Jack muttered a curse under his breath, the Bo’tara multiply at a near uncontainable rate in Earth’s atmosphere. The abundant oxygen that wasn’t available on their homeworld put the process of multiplying into overdrive. Great. “Get out of the archives as quick as you can Ianto.” 

“Understood sir.”

“Oh, and Ianto?”

“Yessir?”

“Try not to sneeze on anything else.”

“I’ll do my best sir,” Ianto replied in a dry voice.

Jack rushed to the armory to retrieve as many containment units as possible. He knew that no matter how many they had they would need more. Bo’tara were awful that way.

“Jack!” He turned around to see Owen and Tosh following him. “What the bloody Hell is goin’ on here?”

“Some Bo’tara got loose in the archives, we’ve gotta work quick to contain them.” Jack dug through the mess of tools. Next thing he was going to have Ianto organize their armory.

Tosh gasped, “Bo’tara?”

“How’d the little buggers even get in there?” Owen accused as he and Tosh joined Jack in the search for containment units.

“It’s… complicated.” Jack trailed off. On the one hand, he didn’t want to betray Ianto’s trust, on the other he wanted his team to be fully informed of the situation they were heading into.

“That’s bullshit, Jack,” Owen exclaimed.

He shrugged. “I’m sorry but it’s not my place to say.”

“So Teaboy let them in?”

Tosh shook her head. “Ianto wouldn’t do something like that.”

“He didn’t have a choice.” Jack sighed, “Look let's talk about this afterwards, right now we’ve got a quickly multiplying population of aliens to contain.”

“Fine, but you better tell us what’s going on Jack.”

They all hurried off to the archives, portable cells in hand. As they were on their way down they ran into Ianto. “What the Hell’s goin’ on Teaboy?” Owen’s anger quickly morphed into concern when he saw Ianto sneeze out a cloud of purple and blue dust. “You okay Teaboy?”

“I’m fine Owen.”

“I’ll explain it when I explain how the Bo’tara got in.” Jack cut in before the conversation could get much further. “Right now we’ve gotta go.”

It was a long and difficult struggle but, eventually, the team was able to contain all of the escaped aliens. “Jack.” Tosh cornered him. “What happened here?”

“And what the bloody Hell is goin’ on with Teaboy?”

Jack sighed and finally explained ot them the reason that Ianto was held at One.

“So Teaboy has mgical life giving powers,” Owen summarized. “And you decided not to share that with us? Especially me, his doctor!”

“He didn’t want to be treated as a freak, I respect that.” Of course Jack didn’t share why he could relate to that quite so well.

“Oh Jack, we’d never do that.”

“I dunno.” Owen scoffed. “Seems pretty freaky to me.”

“Fine.” Tosh glared at Owen. “I’d never do that.”

“Oh come on, I’d never gove him that hard of a time.” Owen confessed. “Just a bit of harmless teasing.”

“So you guys are okay with this?”

“Other than the fact that Teaboy now has a manditory physical to update his file I don’t see why not.”

“Yeah.” Tosh smiled. “This is normal for us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy birthday to me for finally finishing this!!


End file.
